Visitors take photos in front of the sculptural installation “Absorbed by Light,” designed by Gala May Lucas and made by Karoline Hinz, in Yucatan, Mexico. Artur Widak (Artur Widak / NurPhoto / Contact)
Information overload turns what really matters into annoying noise. If there are too many signals, there is a risk of collapse. Often the noise is associated with spam, annoying trolls and the endless stream of comments and likes. But too often, important emails go unread. In this busy digital age, the classic engineering distinction between signal and noise is becoming arbitrary. The borders are fluid, just as we live the supposed real life as an interruption of what reaches us 24/7 through social networks. Parents, colleagues and friends are now signal and noise at the same time. The dialectic of attraction and distraction remains unresolved and gets caught in a vicious circle.
“According to communication theory, noise distorts the message and obscures its clarity,” says Amsterdam noise theorist Martina Raponi. “However, this interpretation of noise refutes the basic idea that noise itself is a carrier of information and that it helps create the signal we pay attention to. In other words, noise is a necessary distraction in the information gathering process.” From the point of view of the senses, Raponi indicates that we cannot help but pay attention to it; “No matter how weak or how strong it is. A derivative is the auditory worm, the catchy tune that sticks in our heads and haunts us endlessly after we hear it. The emotional and affective value of the noise or audio worm is crucial to gain the listener’s attention.”
A decade ago, Howard Rheingold suggested using “garbage detection” as a technique to fix “filter bugs,” but few understood its importance. According to the liberal market, this is nothing but the fruit of rivalry between brands vying for our attention. But now we know it’s not. Exhaustion and indifference turn the signals on the screen into white noise. As the screen scrolls, information begins to blur. So let’s look up and put the phone down.
In this post-Covid era and with the war in Ukraine, the topic of social networks is no longer a central issue. The hoaxes aren’t news anymore: they’re just there. The noise is the message. Subliminal techniques alter the mental state of billions of people. After a decade of alternative science and even more fringe criticism on the internet, the diagnosis is suddenly clear to all of us. The masses are finally understanding how platform capitalism works, but they are doing nothing about it. Waiting for Brussels is the new waiting for Godot. Since there will be no antitrust laws to break up technology monopolies, political censorship (Russian-Chinese style) seems the easiest option. With centralized platforms being the only option, anyone learning on their own seems like the only way out. Every user has to solve the noise issue for themselves, as the Dutch philosopher Miriam Rasch examines in her latest essay Autonomie: een zelfhulpgids (Autonomy, a guide to self-help). Rasch points out a paradox: Technology companies are undermining our autonomy, our freedom to choose, and our individual agency, while at the same time extolling these values.
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We already know what happens when platform giants are asked to provide us with technological solutions to “addiction” problems that they consciously created themselves. Technosocial noise is in our heads, in our fingers, it controls our eyes and excites our nerves. Eliminating noise is seen as a personal matter, a moral responsibility that falls on the individual, on the user, and which is solved with meditation (Harari), with digital detox applications, turning off notifications or setting up cell-free days can be.
The original notion of cybernetics, formulated by Oswald Wiener in the early 1940s, states that the future can be better predicted if the noise is removed. In Western “frictionless” ideology, this is embodied in the ideal of optimization, the cult of lengthening life and shortening time to accommodate all possible experiences. In this context, the Other ultimately becomes noise, an obstacle that has to be removed after consumption.
Aside from a rapidly aging group of electronic sound artists, who likes noise? This is a tricky question. Noise is omnipresent and is even used as a resource. Distraction is not the enemy. Loss of concentration is generally viewed as temporary relief, a gesture of protection, and a justified escape. Incorrect information continues to capture our attention, if only for a split second. Noise is no longer a cultural subgenre that awakens our senses. It’s a general condition. An example is Indian investor Vibhu Vats, for whom noise is the norm: “Human nature doesn’t like silence. This is intended for ascetics, saints and hermits. Noise is the spice of life. If removed, life would be healthy but boring. Let’s not ignore the noise. It is better to accept it as a necessary evil and regulate its consumption.”
At Rasch we come to the conclusion that accepting noise means forgetting identity and authenticity, putting on irrelevant masks. Break the tame mentality of “following” the social herd, but keep living the values of your idols. Mieke Gerritzen, another Dutch author, writes about this in Help Your Self. The Rise of Self-Design (Helping Self-Help: The Rise of Self-Design). Gerritzen is a designer trying to carve out a personal niche for herself in the sea of social media influences. But remember that only collective action can claim — and defend — personal autonomy, concludes Rasch. So, in the open and direct way of the Dutch, let’s continue to accept the unacceptable.
Geert Lovink (Amsterdam, 1959) is a media and internet analyst and author of “Sad by Design” (Consonni, 2019).
translation of Maria Luisa Rodríguez Tapia.
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